Mr. Hugh Greaves:

The priorities are sound and good. The priorities of the drugs task forces have been emphasised to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan. Major budget cuts were imposed on the drugs task forces and on youth services that work hand-in-hand with the local drug services in 2008. Those cuts have not yet been reversed, by and large. In recent years we have had money for new initiatives, which is welcome and which has led to some interesting projects being developed, but there has been no restoration of funding at all. There are major sustainability issues for projects. Rent, insurance, fuel and so on have gone up in price and there has been no recognition that there is a need to increase the budgets for the drugs task force projects that are in place. That is the one thing the drugs task forces would be unanimous in saying. The priorities are fine as they are but there is no recognition of the need to support what is there.

New initiatives are built on what is already there rather than letting them collapse, which would leave us in a different position altogether.